This year there is a handful of new teachers coming to Wayland High School, including new drama teacher Aidan O’Hara. O’Hara is replacing the long time drama teacher Richard Weingartner. O’Hara is excited to be a part of WHS, the Wayland High School Theater Ensemble and many other groups of the Arts department.

Before coming to WHS, O’Hara spent some time in Hingham, MA as a teacher, and for a short period of time, he worked in the sports media field. For the last 15 years, he was the drama teacher at Weston Middle School.

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I thought I was going to be a history teacher for a while and then I sort of shifted gears to drama because it sounded like a more exciting and more flexible thing to teach for a career,” O’Hara said.

“A lot of what shapes me as a drama teacher is my own drama experience in high school. It’s funny because I happen to come from a very talented grade, meaning I could tell pretty quickly who was going to get the leads.”

O’Hara’s love for the arts flourished when he was in high school, but not just because of the acting side.

“My love for theatre really came from being in the environment and looking on the directing side,” O’Hara explained.

At WHS, O’Hara is planning to start off the school year with a musical.

“I love the idea of starting off the year with a musical. A huge community event is something I hope could raise a lot of school spirit whether you can be involved in it or just come see it and support it.”

As for his classes, he is trying to make them very kinesthetic.

“You don’t see a lot of desks in [the shop] or in the theatre and I think I benefit from being able to do a lot of fun different things,” O’Hara said. “Hopefully my classes will give a lot of opportunity to explore what acting is and to explore what communication is. I hope I have a lot of different types of students, whether what they want is to be an actor or they just like the environment and just enjoy what they are learning about.”

“[My favorite thing about being a drama teacher is] the opportunity to connect and build relationships with students, [the ability to] talk about the idea of finding your voice, learning how to express yourself, and overall, just giving young adults the opportunity to find their most dynamic version of themselves.”